Are the Girl Scouts Right for Catholic Girls?

By Taylor Wilkerson
3/25/2012
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

What parents need to know

Girl Scouts is an organization that has always committed itself to teaching girls wholesome skills, such as self-respect, the ability to communicate effectively with other people, and the tools for leadership. Or so we thought. Parents send their daughters to Girl Scouts because it has the reputation of being a program that instills values and builds character, but it has become increasingly clear recently that parents, especially Catholic parents, need to re-think this traditional image.

With GSUSA exposing its members to liberal ideologies through distributed materials, Catholic parents might want to take a second look at the organization before allowing their daughters to join.

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Cookies, little green uniforms, badges: the three main things that come to mind when people think about the Girl Scouts. Anyone who has ever been in the program knows, however, that it is so much more than that.

Girl Scouts is an organization that has always committed itself to teaching girls wholesome skills, such as self-respect, the ability to communicate effectively with other people, and the tools for leadership. Or so we thought. Parents send their daughters to Girl Scouts because it has the reputation of being a program that instills values and builds character, but it has become increasingly clear recently that parents, especially Catholic parents, need to re-think this traditional image.

Rather than teaching girls social skills, the Girl Scouts of America (GSUSA) is promoting liberal agendas through distributed materials. In the Journey books, a series which GSUSA offers to Girl Scouts as a way of helping the girls learn more about their communities and the world, suggested links lead the girls to sites promoting abortion, contraception, and other things that contradict the social and moral teachings of the Catholic Church. These books praise pro-choice advocates, including Delores Huerta, Gloria Steinem, and Betty Friedan, as being "voices for good" and models for the girls to follow. In one book titled "aMUSE", which is promoted for 4th and 5th graders, GSUSA recommends the play "Simply Maria" by Josefina Lopez. This play mocks purity, marriage, the sanctity of human life, and the Catholic priesthood in shocking ways and is not in the least appropriate for children.

Upon discovering such material last year, one Girl Scout, Sydney Volanski, left the organization and started her own website called Speak Now: Girl Scouts where she provides resources for parents and their children to learn about the ideologies GSUSA is pushing with its members. In an interview with Fox and Friends, Volanski said that the Girl Scouts "promise to be neutral politically and about certain social issues, but when you examine the women that they promote and the websites and books that they refer girls to, there is a clear liberal ideology".

It is also interesting to note that GSUSA claims that it "does not have a relationship or a partnership with Planned Parenthood", but in a 2004 interview with NBC, the former CEO of GSUSA, Kathy Cloninger, stated "We [the Girl Scouts] have relationships with our church communities...and with Planned Parenthood organizations across the country to bring information-based sex education programs to girls."

Odd for an organization that has no ties with Planned Parenthood and also says on its website that it takes no official position on sexuality, contraception, or abortion.

In spite of these issues and the concerns raised by girls and their parents, the new CEO of GSUSA, Anna Maria Chavez, a professing Catholic, does not seem to be making changes and in fact has a liberal history of her own, which includes working with pro-choice officials and organizations. Chavez has described Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, who as governor vetoed a ban on partial birth abortions, as her mentor.

In 2006, Chavez helped set up the Raul H. Castro Institute as a means of helping the Latino community of Arizona. As a member of the RCI Executive Committee, Chavez oversaw the RCI Inaugural Symposium where Yolanda Chavez, a long-time Planned Parenthood sex educator, was the only speaker chosen to address the question of how to solve the problem of teenage pregnancy. In 2009, Chavez delivered a keynote address at the Women's Equality Day celebration, which was sponsored by several organizations, including Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas.

This is not the impression one gets after reading the letter which Chavez recently sent to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In the letter, Chavez introduces herself to the bishops and says that the Girl Scouts are "committed to building stronger ties with all faith communities, including the Catholic Church". One has to wonder, if this statement is true, why GSUSA seems more committed to promoting ideas contrary to the Church's moral teaching and introducing young girls to websites and resources which mock the Catholic Church and give information about abortion and contraception than "building stronger ties" with the Church. It seems that Ms. Chavez, who is the CEO of an organization that claims knowing what one believes and standing for it is a quality of effective leadership, has some very important decisions to make.

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Keywords: girl scouts, GSUSA, girl scouts catholic, liberal

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1 - 10 of 33 Comments

Vance
1 year ago
Judy, it's hard not to support the GS of A. I just bought cookies from them. I believe it was a year ago when I read an article that reported GS of A had a table at a convention that displayed Pro-Abortion material. I do remember back in the 1970's when Feminism was running rampant, the GS of A leadership announced that they were "Changing" to reflect the times. I hope that good people like and others can 'Take Back' the GS of A from the sick perverts of the Liberal Establishment. It will require a concerted effort but it is doable. It is a shame that such a fine American Institution was infected like 'Little Germs' from the sick pervert Left.
Theresa H.
1 year ago
I sure hope the USCCB are aware of this and bring it to the attention of our priests and all the members of the parishes in their dioceses. We can't afford another generation of ill-catechized and uninformed parents in matters pertaining to the sound education of their children in matters of faith and morals, The Girl Scouts have always been held in high esteem; ignorance of the change in their "value-system" will be devastating!
P Naylor
1 year ago
Follow this link to the American Heritage Girls and the Boy Scouts of America - these two youth groups have a memo of cooperation and support each other. The Girl Scouts have no cooperation or coordination with the Boy Scouts of America because their values and mission are completely different. The GSofA have programs that are not in keeping with catholic teaching. Save your money, don't buy the cookies, go to the American Heritage Girls website and support their programs.

http://www.americanheritagegirls.com/uploads/BSA_AHG_brochure.pdf
Judy
1 year ago
DOES ANYONE wish to respond to the questions that I asked the G. S. leader of 25 years that is Catholic? I would really like Someone to prove this article wrong. My daughter would as well. Especially since she told me that our Church supports a G.S. Sunday once a year. If this is true, (and why wouldn't it be on C. O.) perhaps our Church needs to be aware of Changes. Changes that seem to creep in like invisible germs. We really desire this article to be false. But as our Church still supports them, it gives rise to second thoughts. Waiting...
Michelle
1 year ago
I feel sorry for the young girls and their poor mothers standing outside our Walmart every weekend trying to sell their cookies like beggars. They are so lost, soooo lost. Peddling cookies to earn a few bucks for a camping trip or some badges while the organization gets the majority of the cookie sale is stupid. Trash the cookies and take your daughters camping yourselves...it's not that expensive. However, on the flip-side of this stupidity is wickedness. Setting cute little girls on these sidewalks to peddle crummy cookies, taking advantage of them and their mothers by giving them a token pittance for the sales, and then using that money to fund ugly agendas is wicked to the core. Stupidity and wickedness. Obviously I don't buy the cookies, lol!
vance
1 year ago
Rob, It sounds as though the 'Sicko's' are well entrenched in the National Leadership of the Girl Scouts. It would take a concerted effort on the part of Christians to "Take Back" the organization and run it according to it's original Mission Statement - Good Citizenship and Duty to God and Country. I'm out of the loop as far as the Girl Scout go. I do hope that there are Christians who have young daughters that can help make the change. As you know, the Pervert Liberal Establishment has targeted the Boy Scouts and Girl Scout for a long time. These organizations represent "Goodness", "Wholesomeness", "Purity", "Patriotism", "Godliness". These are what the sick Liberal Establishment hate and loath.
Judy
1 year ago
Catholic Girl Scout Leader: I read your interesting article. It seems to be drowning in this article and sea of G.S. posts. However, I am open, (even though I posted according to what I read), to your response, making the alligations of and in above said article untrue. Especially in regard to Journey books for 4th and 5th graders, aMUSE, Simply Maria, and so on. The authors speak for themselves. I grew up w/them. GREAT MUSES and ROLE MODELS for young girls! (Yes, dear readers, I am being sarcastic). Also, I would like to hear your viewpoint on Planned Parenthood. I am glad that you are Catholic. Yet, not all Catholics think alike or even according to the Church. These are new changes and you have been in G. S. for a long time. Perhaps you did not know about these changes? Blessings...
Judy
1 year ago
Times Change don't they? Never thought I would see this! P.P., Obamacare, Abortion, etc., taught by our beloved Girl Scouts! My, how Sodom & G. keep rearing their heads in America where they were not seen before. I aught to know, I just passed my 60 mark not long ago.And yes, I was a Girl Scout. When I was in, one was taught to respect all religions, due their duty to God and country, and things one thinks of when thinking G. S. (This is way out)! A question to Catholic Girl Scout Leader of 25 yrs. follows. Blessings...
Rob
1 year ago
Matt, I pay taxes. The ship sailed long ago as to what I inadvertantly fund. But maybe some of you who feel strongly about it can take up the cause and change the organization? vance?
Vance
1 year ago
This isn't the first article about this subject. It doesn't surprise me that the sick Marxist would infiltrate and take over an American Institution like the Girl Scouts of America. What a shame. It would behoove a person to be involved with their daughters if they decided to let their girls join the organization. I would find an alternative girls organization that promotes Catholic values.

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